Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227

NCC9/25/96
For Immediate Release

130 Sites Participate in National "Building Hospitable Community" Teleconference to Combat Bias Against Immigrants

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 24 ---- As Congress considered legislation to restrict services for immigrants, a national teleconference today (Sept. 24) urged the religious community to make the United States more friendly to immigrants. "Building Hospitable Community," with 130 downlink sites across the nation, was sponsored by the National Council of Churches (NCC) and financed with a Rockefeller Foundation grant.

"The issue is one of grave significance for the United States right now," said Dr. Kathleen S. Hurty, director of the NCC Ecumenical Networks Department and the teleconference's executive producer. She participated from the United Methodist Teleconference Connection studio in Nashville, from which the teleconference originated. "My hope is that we contributed something to the public conversation in this difficult time of public decision making around immigration issues."

Expert panelists began the program by addressing common misinformation about immigrants. They pointed out that 85% of immigrants come to the United States legally and that immigrants pay more in taxes than they take out. They stressed that although immigration is an "election year hot potato," people of faith must bring their values to bear on the issue. "As Christians, we hold the belief that we are citizens not just of this world" but also of God's Realm, lawyer and activist Ignatius Bau said. "Our sense of community must be based on (this vision)."

A caller from Georgia exhibited this sense of community when she emphasized the "hidden" work immigrants do picking and tending crops and working in restaurants. "In a sense, we (already) meet across the dinner table," she said. Panelists encouraged viewers to take the caller's sentiment to their churches, communities and to their local, state and national politicians.

Dr. Elizabeth G. Ferris, director of the Immigration and Refugee Program of Church World Service, NCC, reported that faith-based communities are responsible for most of the refugee resettlement in the United States; Mr. Bau encouraged the religious community to increase work that would make communities friendly to refugees and immigrants on a day to day basis. In a video clip, Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, NCC General Secretary, also stressed the need for Christians to move from crisis response to advocacy and policy. Being hospitable to the "stranger," she said, is "not a choice for Christians" but is an essential part of faith.

Panelists also stressed the connections between anti-immigrant bias and racism. "They are two sides of a curious coin," said the Rev. Ernest H. Jones of the Bridgeport, Conn. Council of Churches. "You cannot adequately talk about immigration without talking about race." Bau explained the historical bias against particular groups of immigrants, such as Chinese people and Mexicans. Both Rev. Jones and Dr. Ferris pointed out the media images that tend to cast the immigrant as a person of color and focus nearly exclusively on the Southern border.

"You don't hear people say, 'Oh, look at those Canadians who are overstaying their visas!'" Dr. Ferris noted.

The Rev. Minerva C. Carcao, director of the Mexican-American program at Perkins School of Theology, Dallas, Tex., was the other panelist. Dr. Martha McCoy, Pomfret, Conn., director of the Study Circles Resource Center of the Topsfield Foundation, and Dr. Hurty joined the telecast later to discuss already existing models of hospitality, including study circles, posadas and Bible studies. "There are already a lot of grounded, practical ideas," explained Dr. Hurty. Examples cited from across the country included: